Letters to the Editor
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No Answer
If you are referring to the Channel Four Documentary, 'My Foetus' the abortion which was shown in that documentary occurred at FOUR WEEKS gestation.
According to information provided by the producers of that film addtional footage included
"an inspection of aborted foetal remains of a seven-week pregnancy and images of a 10, 11 and 21 week aborted foetus."
As you will never personally have to make this decision for yourself..or have your life ruined by an unwanted pregnancy, you are not in the position to make these choices for other people.
No more than I am a position to tell you how to life your life.
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Congratulations Jane O'Malley
I'll just express thanks for the well written comments by Rachel and Rachel K., thanking them for excellent arguments and thoughtful, well written comments that were not dashed off before clicking "Publish My Letter."
Not everyone sees the world as you do, Jane O'Malley, not everyone believes in God, in Jesus as the Son of God and in the veracity of the bible. Your view is not everyone's view. How about some respect for that?
And if we're talking laws based on the 10 commandments, how about some serious criminialization of people not honoring their mother and father, people coveting things their neighbor owns, and people commiting adultery? In God's eyes a mortal sin is a mortal sin. Doesn't matter if it's sleeping with your married co-worker, desiring someone else's new car, talking back to your parents, or murdering someone on the sidewalk in broad daylight - you do it and you're going to hell (provided that you don't repent and ask for forgiveness). Any sin is an abomination to him - why pick one?
If God says that it's wrong - shouldn't we legislate it?
PS - If you were ever going to be searching for employment, one would hope that your hastily written and carelessly formatted comment with your name and political opinion attached would not count against you.
Sometimes I think about cutting my hair for weeks. Does that also mean that it is wrong to cut my long tresses into a chin-length bob? I'll have to ask my priest about that next time I go to confession.
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Does Anyone Else
Find "No Answer" (AKA Meandering Trevor's) shameless and repeated posting as an excuse to flog his blogsite?
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Idiots
The answer isn't to engage in this endless stupid arguement over fucking abortion.The answer, you stupid fucking morons is to use birth control. idiots!
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Don't they just go to "Heaven" anyway?
Don't the religious types believe that aborted fetuses just go to that "Heaven" place? Also, aren't these the same people who are always telling us that everything happens for a reason?
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Statistics on When Abortions Happen
"Of the 1.6 million abortions performed in the U.S. each year,
-91 percent are performed during the first trimester (12 or fewer weeks' gestation);
-9 percent are performed in the second trimester (24 or fewer weeks' gestation);
-and only about 100 are performed in the third trimester (more than 24 weeks' gestation), approximately .01 percent of all abortions performed. "
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,880,00.html
So, for the most part, yeah, it IS a clump of cells.
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Respect for Life
It isn"t just the "religious types " who have respect for human life, but they usually take the lead. The sign I put up in my front yard early on against the Iraqui invasion came from the Quakers.
I keep an old dog whom was dumped in our neighborhood. Where I live is still slightly rural, and city folks visit it to get rid of their unwanted pets. If I had taken Caesar (see, I named him) to the pound, they would have euthanized him. I couldn't pretend not to know that. Even an old dog's life in this crowded universe probably has some meaning.
Signing a petition in this matter doesn't show much character one way or another. Some people will do anything to get their name out before the public eye.
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Judge not, bud.
I am all for women taking a part in life that they are capible of doing but when getting pregant throughs a monkey wrench in their plans . Did these women miss sex education and not know what could happen
I don't know but I'm guessing you missed a few English classes.
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Poor Parson Jim the victim
T-shirt for the men
"I Have No Reproductive Rights"
Sucks to be you, eh?
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A "clump of cells"
But no one has answered me... Why is this clump of cells not considered human life? This clump has a determined sex and its DNA from both parents. If it is not yet human, at what stage will it be?
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To Lynn
When does a clump of cells become a human life? Who knows? Isn't that a philosophical question that varies depending on religion, ethics and personal morals? Why isn't the egg a human life? Or the sperm? Why isn't jacking off illegal as it wastes potential life?
The truth is, nobody knows and people just have to do the best they can to figure out what their own truth is - and that is why it is wrong to impose any one opinion on another group of people. When I was pregnant, my husband and I would constantly ask each other when we thought he had a soul (as we personally beleive in such things), and we honestly couldn't tell. Even after he was born he seemed more animalistic than human. He couldn't see, he couldn't control his arms and legs, he could barely digest food - only when he started smiling did I realize he was a little guy and not just...a "baby" as in a thing to take care of with no existence outside what I could do for him. My point is, the question is complex and endless. Why force people who don't want/care about the kid to have it? End of story. As long as it is safe, just let people follow their own moral compasses and make your own decision. In other words, just leave us alone!
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Abortion and Birth Control Failure
For all of the people who asked the question, "Why not use birth control," here's an answer--I did.
And it didn't bloody well matter.
The first time I got pregnant, I was on the pill and taking it correctly. But, I got pregnant anyway. So, I had an abortion, and then read statistics which showed that most abortions were caused, not by a lack of birth control, but by birth control failure. (So why no research on making birth control work better in the past forty years or so? Could it have something to do with the fact that a lot of anti-choice people are also anti-birth control as well, and have been busy spreading lies such as "abstinence only sex education? Hrm. Could be....)
The second time I got pregnant, I was on the pill. A different one, supposedly one that would really honestly keep me from getting pregnant.
It didn't.
I had my daughter, concieved while I was on birth control.
Okay, so years later--I am on various birth control methods and don't get pregnant. Now, I am forty. I am on the pill again--and damned if I don't get pregnant again.
I didn't have an abortion. My husband and I very much wanted a baby, but after years of trying to concieve and having miscarriages, we had given up, and I had gone back on birth control.
Only to get pregnant again.
Because of my age, I had an amnio done, to make certain that no catastrophic birth defects were brewing with our baby. The month between when I had that painful and frightening procedure done and when the results came back were fraught with anxiety, because we knew that if the baby was going to be seen to have a terminal defect, we would have to abort.
That did not happen, luckily. My baby is healthy, my pregnancy goes on healthily and I am happy.
But, I do not appreciate the fact that there are those in the United States who would impose their will upon my ability to decide what is best for my family. When people get angry about late-term abortions, they act as if the women who ask for those are some sort of irresponsible baby murderers who just "want to be rid of it."
I have news for you.
Most late-term abortions (and there are very few of them done each year in the US) are done because the baby is not viable, and it is done to prevent the baby being born, and lingering in pain for a few days, weeks or months, before dying painfully. Most of them are done for women who very much wanted their babies, who very much loved them, but who found out that they were not going to live, and to spare their little ones further pain, they decided to terminate a non-viable pregnancy.
As a woman who might have faced such a dire decision, I want to say to you anti-choice people--walk a mile in my shoes before you start going on about "God's will." And leave God out of it, while you are at it. Not all of us believe in such a narrow view of God as you do, and we should not have your Bible-based beliefs shoved down our throats through the legal system.
Have a bit of compassion, why don't you, and maybe actually look at the statistics on why women have abortions before you start spouting off about "just use birth control" or "all abortion is murder."